Building My First PC........

[Carbo]

Gulp.......am I getting in over my head? Never attempted this before. But, I have a fairly good grasp of things, on paper, at least.
Some details: this will be for my daughter. Her main use is for high school assignments and playing around. No heavy apps or programs or needs. Just a good, basic, dependable machine.
Can some of you point the way to a good starting place for tutorials on how to build, what to avoid, etc.
And, where are the best deals found online these days?
Many thanks!

 

[Novgrod]

You aren't getting in over your head, and i think you'll find yourself happier & better off having built it. The best tutorial on how to build is in your motherboard manual, i guess--i tried writing one a while ago, but the long and the short is that systems are different enough that there can't be an all-in-one guide.

I think just about everybody here buys most of their stuff from www.newegg.com; they have excellent prices and services. My experience is exclusively with AMD systems, and I've never had a hiccup over a number of different chipsets, so I'd be glad to help you with that--I can help with a p4 setup too, just not as much.
If you run into any problems, just post it and i'm sure the kind people here will help you out. Do you need hardware recommendations?

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Carbo
Gulp.......am I getting in over my head? Never attempted this before. But, I have a fairly good grasp of things, on paper, at least.
Some details: this will be for my daughter. Her main use is for high school assignments and playing around. No heavy apps or programs or needs. Just a good, basic, dependable machine.
Can some of you point the way to a good starting place for tutorials on how to build, what to avoid, etc.
And, where are the best deals found online these days?
Many thanks!

heya Carbo go for it !Novgrod has good advice and..yes..do you have any of the hardware and/or list up your rig..upgrading your ownself is a good way to learn as well as acquiring pieces for the future build..

 

[waylman]

a good link is here

 

[stinger25]

try this link:beer:

 

[aman74]

It will be my first time building a PC this weekend as well. I've read a ton of guides and I've found the best ones are the 2 mentioned and the one on Motherboards.org, some guides you have to print page by page which stinks, unless I'm doing it wrong, but some don't have a printer friendly version. I'm a newbie too, but I'm pretty up to date and somewhat knowledgable about the hardware if you need any advice in that regard. Let us know your budget so we can help out. I ended up going over mine, but I'm looking for alot of performance. It sounds like your needs are very modest, you could do very well with 600 bucks or so. Also, the forums are a good place to get help, but don't believe everything you read. For some reason this forum is a lot friendler and people are quicker to help out newbies, I don't know why that is, but some places will just waste your time or make fun of you for being new.

 

[tart666]

Originally posted by: Carbo
[...]Some details: this will be for my daughter. Her main use is for high school assignments and playing around. No heavy apps or programs or needs. Just a good, basic, dependable machine.
[...]

Will there ever come a time (in the lifetime of the PC) when your daughter will NOT be living in your house? (edit) and if so, can she be expected to RMA mobo's / HD's?

 

[Bonesdad]

A really good guide would be to take an old one apart. If its an old P2 or K6 machine, you wouldn't have much to lose and you would learn a lot. The toughest part is getting the HSF on the CPU...and even that is ez if you are cautious and take your time. Have fun!

 

[Creig]

You can build a good, basic, dependable machine that will still perform well. I always tell people that when buying/upgrading a computer there are only two questions you need to ask to get started.

1) How much do you want to spend?

2) What do you want it to be able to do?


Those two small questions are all that's needed to be able to come up with a system design. You already answered the second (high school assignments and playing around). If you can answer the first we'll be able to have a clearer picture of what hardware would be best suited.

 

[Carbo]

Do you need hardware recommendations?

Absolutely, I would welcome them.
Her needs are easy. As I noted I'm just looking to put together a dependable and functional work station. High school assignments, primarily, with a healthy mix of BS such as AIM and downloading MP3's. No games of any kind, no heavy graphics. An inexpensive but dependable printer comes to mind, too.

Will there ever come a time (in the lifetime of the PC) when your daughter will NOT be living in your house?

If there's a God in Heaven!

can she be expected to RMA mobo's / HD's?

Not a chance. Maintenance will be my department.

The toughest part is getting the HSF on the CPU

What about buying a retail unit with the HSF already attached to the CPU?

How much do you want to spend?

Can I build a respectable rig, including periphals, for about $1,000 or less?

BTW: some excellent links you've provided, guys! Thank you.

 

[Malladine]

Can I build a respectable rig, including periphals, for about $1,000 or less?

Most definately. If you're going that way I, and many others here, would recommend newegg.com as a reliable and reasonably priced online retailer. You can set an account up there and pick and choose the parts for your system to get an total cost. Pretty handy

At the risk of being redundant, i'll give some (AMD specific) advice to get you started :

Motherboard: There are very few manufacturers I would say you should avoid. I personally have had no problems with ECS, Biostar and Gigabyte and have heard nothing but good things about Asus, Abit and MSI. Some main things to consider when choosing a motherboard are:
1. Do you want onboard graphics? With the prices of very good cards dropping all the time, i'd advise buying a less expensive motherboard w/o onboard graphics and spending $80-100 on a decent card.
2. The chipset...VIA's KT333/KT400 the Nforce2 and SIS735 are all good IMO. Others are dated and should be avoided. 3. Make sure it has 3 DDR DIMM slots for easy RAM upgrade options.
4. Ensure it has a 4x or 8x AGP slot, again, upgradability.
5. Onboard LAN is always a plus
6. If it's going to be used to listen to MP3s a lot, then i'd say a seperate sound card would be best, but some say that the Nforce2 has excellent onboard audio.

Graphics: The very acceptable Radeon 8500LE w/128mb ram can be had for $87. I'm a gamer, so I just can't bring myself to recommend a system without a decent graphics card! But who knows, maybe someone will want to game on it sometime.

CPU: Overclocking doesn't sound like it's an option, so the Athlon XP 2400+ (2ghz) should do you proud. With a decent HSF (Glacialtech Igloo, Vantec are two quiet options), shouldn't cost more than $120. Don't forget $7 for the arctic silver III thermal grease. As far as attaching the HSF to the CPU correctly goes, visit ArcticSilver's website for detailed instructions and you shouldn't go wrong. I'm not sure if it's possible to order a cpu with the HSF already attached other than at a physical computer store.

HDD: I'm sure you know what size would suit your needs, so i'll just recommend Maxtor and Seagate. For standard needs, 2mb cache is just fine.

DVDROM: Yep, DVDROM. No point in buying a standalone CDROM as the DVDROM can read both dvds and cds. Plextor, Lite-On, Teac, Sony, Samsung...the list goes on

CDRW: Probably want one for the mp3s? If so, same brands as listed above should be fine.

Sound card: Of course the Audigy/Audigy2, but don't ignore the excellent price/performance of the Fortissimo 3 for $45.

Speakers: After reading through several different reviews, it seems the most respected manufacturers are Logitech, Klipsch and Altec Lansing. A splendid set of surround sound speakers can be had for $67 (Logitech Z640) all the way up to $170 and way beyond for Klipsch.

Monitor: Whatever size you go for, NEC, Samsung and Viewsonic are good choices.

RAM: 512 of Crucial PC2700 can be had for $75 from their own website. However, if you go for an Nforce2 board, research ram more thoroughly as i've heard of issues between Crucial's ram and that chipset (specifically the top end Asus board).

Printers: HP and Canon are probably the best in the biz.

Good luck

 

[Zrom999]

You can go to newegg.com and view other peoples "wish list" and get an idea of what you might need and how much it would cost. Usually they also post what they are going to use the system for so you can easily go through them and view one that has a similar purpose to what you want.

 

[aman74]

-Intel boards are very user-friendly and rock solid low maintenance. Abit BH-7 is a good one for like 93 bucks. I would go with an Intel 845PE chipset, but AMD may suit you just fine. Not sure about AMD, but Intel retail chips have an HSF already installed. Intel will run cooler (quieter) as well. Onboard sound should be fine. Someone else can better comment on onboard graphics, but personally I'd avoid it.

-Windows XP will give you the easiest install. Best to run it with 512mb of ram. Don't skimp on the quality of ram. I got 2 256mb units PC2100 for 50 bucks (rebate at Best Buy), that was Crucial too. Kingston is supposed to be good as well. Obviously Samsung and Corsair are great, but a waste of money in this situation.

-whichever Intel P4 CPU fits your budget, close to 2 gigs would be great, maybe overkill, but prices are low enough to afford to buy something that will last awhile. I wouldn't go Celeron.

-a hard drive should be no problem for you, you'll get plenty of gigs at a low cost. might as well go for a 7200 RPM drive. WD and Maxtor are good, but Seagate will be quieter and more reliable. (warranty is important here)


-most any video card will do, Nvidia and ATi are great, in your case where you are going to probably get an older card, Nvidia should be better as they were top of the heap back then. I'd go OEM here.

-OEM floppy, anyone really

-Evercase makes a nice case for cheap

-I'd get a decent power supply, Antec, Sparkle/Fortron etc... 350w

-CD burner: probably lite-on 48x, 52's have some problems, anything above 24x is pretty darn fast, that's what i have (yamaha) and it burns a CD in under 4 minutes.

-plenty of printers out there, does she want to do photos? HP, Epson, and Canon are all good, look into which one uses the most ink and avoid it, check Cnet, DPreview, and steves-digicams for reviews. I here the Epson C82 is good and cheap, not sure about ink usage though.

-17" CRT will give you a good value

Another great site is techbargains.com, updated all day for the best deals.

I'm not sure about buying alot of OEM stuff for beginner building. It's my first build too, so the only oem items I bought were the Video Card and the floppy.

Static electricity is alot more insidious than people realize. People say they never have problems from it, but the problems can show up way down the line, so how would you know? Look up ESD for the facts.

You have alot of posts, so maybe you know all this stuff, I never mean to talk down to anyone, but it seemed like you needed some advice on a basic level, hope it helped.

 

[Hanzou]

Obviously Samsung and Corsair are great, but a waste of money in this situation.

What do you mean Samsung is a waste in this situation? They are supposed to work great with the Nforce2 boards and are really cheap.

 

[relaxandreflect]

i just did some research and at newegg you could come out good with an epox 8rda mobo with an amd 2700 proc and some ddr ram. that would be a good starting place. also, check the hot deals forum for rebate deals on the hard drive and peripherals. i wouldn't go there on the ram though since it's usually k-byte which sux and isn't always compatible. mushkin and corsair are always good. also, look for reviews on anandtech and tom's hardware.

 

[Carbo]

You have alot of posts, so maybe you know all this stuff, I never mean to talk down to anyone, but it seemed like you needed some advice on a basic level, hope it helped.

Definitely helped, and very much appreciated, too! I have my share of posts, true, but most of 'em come from starting trouble in Off Topic .
Lots of excellent advice, links, and info. Thanks, guys, for all the help.

 

[aman74]

I just said a waste of money, not a waste in general. Maybe I thought it was more expensive than it actually is. But I've never seen it at the really low prices of Crucial and Kingston. I mean two 256 sticks for 50 bucks is pretty good I think. Crucial and Kingston are solid products, spending more if you're not overclocking I think is a waste.

 

[Hanzou]

from www.a-power.com you can get 512mb sticks of Samsung 2700 for $85 a piece Canadaian. The Kingston sticks are 105$ a piece. I have found Samsung to be the cheapest type of respectable ram available.

 

[aman74]

I'm not an AMD basher by any means, it's a nice chip, but the chipsets for them can be buggy, true you may not have any trouble, but your chances are still higher of a bug or incompatability. I really wanted to go Nforce2 at first, but heard too much trouble. I just think if you want peace of mind Intel would be the best choice. Check the D845PEBT2 reviews from the Intel site, alot of sites specifically recommend it for new builders many said they've never had a PC go together easier than with that board. I don't need overclocking, so that sold me right there.

 

[ViRaLRuSh]

Motherboard: There are very few manufacturers I would say you should avoid. I personally have had no problems with ECS, Biostar and Gigabyte and have heard nothing but good things about Asus, Abit and MSI. Some main things to consider when choosing a motherboard are:
1. Do you want onboard graphics? With the prices of very good cards dropping all the time, i'd advise buying a less expensive motherboard w/o onboard graphics and spending $80-100 on a decent card.
2. The chipset...VIA's KT333/KT400 the Nforce2 and SIS735 are all good IMO. Others are dated and should be avoided. 3. Make sure it has 3 DDR DIMM slots for easy RAM upgrade options.
4. Ensure it has a 4x or 8x AGP slot, again, upgradability.
5. Onboard LAN is always a plus
6. If it's going to be used to listen to MP3s a lot, then i'd say a seperate sound card would be best, but some say that the Nforce2 has excellent onboard audio.



Good luck [/quote]

Good Motherboard on sale in the hot deals forum, the ABIT with a RAID on it for $30 some odd dollars.

 

[Jeff7181]

In no way should you even consider a Celeron. They're absolute trash when you consider what you can get for only $20 more in most cases.

 

[Malladine]

Oh yeah cases, forgot about that, lol.

Lian Li and Coolermaster make the top end cases, but will probably be overkill for you. Antec and Enlight make good quality low-mid end cases. I heard Evercase are good also.

If you want to read some professional reviews of cases, powersupplies and pretty much anything else try this very site or, if that's not enough, Tom's .

 

[Novgrod]

if i were going to build a system like the one you need, I would get an Antec case, an ASUS nforce 2 mobo (just always had success with ASUS), an xp2100 or thereabouts, two 256 megabyte sticks of pc2100 or 2700 ddram from www.crucial.com, a harddrive of your choosing, a combination cdrw + dvd drive (mine is samsung; it works great) and a copy of windows xp pro. If you don't get a retail CPU, well, don't skimp on the heatsink--i've always liked Alpha and they've liked me for easy installation, but that's just me.

The nforce2 chipset will take care of your graphics needs, and your sound needs, and it is just rock solid for a reasonable price. If you want to save more, newegg has an ASUS microATX nforce1 motherboard for $65. I've put together a system with that very motherboard, and it works great.

 

[everman]

My 2cents is to try to make it very quiet. If you go with an athlon you can use a thermalright SK7+ heatsink with a low speed fan (around 18-20 cfm) and arctic silver 3. My favorite hard drive is the Seagate barracuda IV or V. And the antec sonata case is nice also.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

The "easiest" machine I've ever built was an Asus A7N266 V/M/E AA Motherboard with WinXP Professional in an Antec SX-835 case.

Has built in NIC, Video (Gforce 2), and sound on the motherboard.

I got quality RAM (was Kingston or Crucial can't remember, 2 x 256, or get one 512 stick 2100 DDR with cheap prices now).

I used an AMD XP2000+ CPU with a Thermalright SLK-800 Heat Sink (loved the easy 3 tab clip design) with an 80mm Fan mounted on it.

I used only one case fan on the back. Quiet machine, not the fastest, nor best performer, but overall can do most anything.

Artic Silver's web site as mentioned before has an excellent tutorial on applying thermal grease.

When you install the heat sink (for a clip designed one) place the rear clips over the socket tabs, then make sure the heat sink is "butted" next to its rear clips before you mount the front clips on the socket with a screwdriver. This will insure the heat sink is not riding on the "Step" of the CPU's motherboard socket.